Oakland County is expecting better-than-anticipated news about job growth last year at Thursday’s 29th Oakland County Economic Outlook Luncheon in Troy, but there’s still a ways to go to recover the jobs lost in the county since 2001.

More than 600 are expected to attend the sold-out annual event that highlights economic forecasts for the county made by University of Michigan economists George A. Fulton and Donald R. Grimes and, to some degree, the accuracy of their forecasts.

Last year, the economists predicted growth of 11,600 jobs in 2013, 13,300 jobs in 2014 and 16,700 jobs in 2015 — numbers that are likely to be tweaked as they take another three-year look into the economic crystal ball and update the forecast with hard numbers from last year.

“It’s going to be positive. We’re coming out of the recession strong,” Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said Tuesday. “2008, ‘09, ‘10 were a disaster, ‘11, ‘12, ‘13 and ‘14 are making up for it.”

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Assuming the forecast from last year is accurate, the growth through 2015 would still leave the county with nearly 67,000 fewer jobs through 2015 than existed going into 2001.

Job losses totaled 52,700 from 2001 through 2004 and more than 105,000 from 2006 through 2010. The numbers turned positive in 2011 as the county began emerging from the Great Recession and recovering from the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler.

Patterson kicks off the main event at 11:50 a.m. Thursday followed by lunch and then the economic presentation by Grimes and Fulton at roughly 12:30 p.m.

A livechat can be joined on The Oakland Press.

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Charles Crumm covers politics for The Oakland Press. Read his Elections, Politics and Policy blog at http://oaklandmichiganpolitics.blogspot.com/. Reach the author at charlie.crumm@oakpress.com
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